Advice to pregnant women during lambing season (UK)

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 19 Dec 2003 - 0:00 PDT


Issued jointly by the Department of Health, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Health and Safety Executive (all departments in this text are in the UK).

Pregnant women should avoid close contact with sheep during lambing periods, the Department of Health, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Health and Safety Executive advised today.

Pregnant women who come into close contact with sheep during lambing may risk their own health and that of their unborn child, from infections that can occur in some ewes. These include chlamydiosis (enzootic abortion of ewes - EAE), toxoplasmosis and listeriosis, which are common causes of abortion in ewes.

Although the number of reports of these infections in humans and human miscarriages resulting from contact with sheep is extremely small, it is important that pregnant women are aware of the potential risks associated with close contact with sheep during lambing.

To avoid the possible risk of infection, pregnant women are advised that they should:

- not help to lamb or milk ewes;

- avoid contact with aborted or new-born lambs or with the afterbirth;

- avoid handling clothing, boots etc which have come into contact with ewes or lambs.

Pregnant women should seek medical advice if they experience fever or influenza-like symptoms, or if concerned that they could have acquired infection from a farm environment.

Farmers have a responsibility to minimise the risks to pregnant women, including members of their family, the public and professional staff visiting farms. Any action should be determined by their risk assessment required under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 and also the Management of Health and Safety of Work Regulations 1999.

If a ewe aborts, farmers are advised to ask their veterinary surgeon to take a sample to their local Regional laboratory of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency to determine the cause. In the interests of hygiene, farmers should dispose of all afterbirths promptly and safely in accordance with relevant legislation.

The EU Animal By-Products Regulations 2002 requires animal by-products, including afterbirth material, to be disposed of via an approved route such as rendering, incineration, knackers yards etc.

Notes to Editors

1. Farmers should consult their veterinary surgeon about suitable vaccination programmes and any other disease control measures in sheep.

2. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 require employers to assess risks to health from harmful substances, including micro-organisms, and to take steps to prevent or control those risks, and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to further assess any risks which affect pregnant women.

3. Further advice is available from Employment Medical Advisory Service offices, which are listed under the Health and Safety Executive in the telephone directory.

4. The Department of Health advisory leaflet, While you are pregnant: How to avoid infection from food and from contact with animals, is available, free of charge to general medical practitioners and midwives from:

Department of Health, Prolog, Unit 8, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 ODJ.

Further information is also available in the 1997 publication Infection risks to new and expectant mothers in the workplace - a guide for employers, by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ref: ISBN 0-7176-1360-7). Copies are available, price £10.50, from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2WA, or by calling 01787 881165, or via their website at http://www.hsebooks.co.uk

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